The Coordinator’s Guide is twofold, helping the pastor (or other leader) to implement worship/sermons, and a congregational study experience. It contains worship helps for each week of the series, including sermon plans and instructions for using the video illustrations. It also includes instructions for implementing the all-congregation study, along with tips for next steps—ways to follow up after the month-long experience has ended. Church leaders and members should all read the original Get Their Name book during the month of this church-wide experience. Learn to share your faith without anxiety! Bob Farr is director of congregational excellence in the Missouri Conference of The United Methodist Church. Frequent speaker and seminar leader, he is also the author of Get Their Name and Renovate or Die: 10 Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission, both co-authored with Kay Kotan, published by Abingdon Press. Kay Kotan is a credentialed coach, church consultant, speaker and author. She serves as the Director of the Center for Equipping Vital Congregations for the Susquehanna Conference of The United Methodist Church. Get Their Name Coordinator's Guide Grow Your Church by Building New Relationships By BOB FARR, KAY KOTAN Abingdon Press Copyright © 2016 Abingdon Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5018-2543-9 Contents Planning, Suggested Timelines, Promotion, Worship Design Team, Worship Overview for Design Team, Worship Overview for Music Team and Worship Leaders, Sermon Outlines, Appendix Tips and Helps for Facilitating the Get Their Name Group Study, Participant Workbook, CHAPTER 1 PLANNING In order to have a successful sermon series and congregational study, planning ahead is essential. The larger your church is, the more time you will most likely need for planning and promoting. Get Their Name is designed to help create a new culture of being an invitational church. The more planning and congregational participation you have, the greater chance you have of beginning to create a new invitational culture. Make sure you select an optimal season in the life of the church to conduct this congregational study and sermon series to gain the most momentum and participation. You might consider conducting this series as part of Lent or Advent. Or you might consider it as a fall or spring series. When recruiting your group leaders, there are a few things you might want to consider. First, be sure to include a variety of people (age, tenure, spiritual maturity, gender, etc.). Second, make sure your leaders are able to offer a variety of times (daytime during the week, weekday evenings, during Sunday school, maybe Saturday morning, etc.). Third, offer enough groups so that everyone has the opportunity to participate. Group sizes are best at around six to twelve people. Fourth, encourage Sunday school classes or other ongoing small groups to participate. They could use the materials during their regular meeting time, or they could include a second meeting time if they want to continue with their current study but add this study, too. If the existing class or group does not choose to use the materials, suggest that the class leaders encourage their members to join another group for the four weeks at a time that does not conflict with their existing group. Consider challenging your congregation to reach a certain number of group participants. Fifth, be prepared to resource group leaders whose groups choose to continue the small group experience after this study. They may enjoy their time and study so much that they don't want it to end! Be prepared to help them consider next steps in sustaining and equipping. Small group leaders will need to know their faith story, so part of your training and equipping will be to help these leaders discover or refine their story. Small group participants will want to hear an example of a faith story, so the group leader will need to be prepared to share his or her story in order to encourage their participants to discover their own. Help your leaders work on this as you prepare them to lead. The suggestions and steps described here are best practices. Some churches will have the resources to implement every step. Others will not. Implement as many of the steps as possible, but if you can't, don't let them intimidate you and keep you from conducting the series. Adapt the steps as needed for your church and its resources. Do the very best that you can. Stretch yourself a bit if needed, but don't overwhelm yourself in the process. Remember, this study is only the first step. This is the equipping piece of the process — step one. Your church will also need to provide the next two steps in closing the gap on evangelism. Step two is helping the congregation understand the importance of evangelism — the "why." The third step is the action step — the practicing, going, and doing. Think about what opportunities you might include during this study, imme